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Sunday, November 23, 2014

Guest Blogger: Evolution of a Writer & Meeting My Husband At The Same Time by Joel Craig

Evolution Of A
Writer & Meeting My Husband At The Same Time

by Joel Craig

My history of
writing has been journal writing, play and screen writing and eventually comic
books. In the early 2000’s, I started a theatre company with my friends
called Off Hollywood and we wrote plays and performed them on the Hudson Avenue stage that we

rented in Hollywood. We were able to workshop plays that myself
and my friends wrote. Once we are satisfied with the staged readings (so we
could hear our work out loud) we would plan a production so that others could
see our work. Also I met my future husband Donovan for the first time when he
came in to audition for Off Hollywood for the company. Luckily he
was chosen to be part of the company. We performed together in the play, The
Son’ll Come Out Tomorrowby Christopher Reidy (one
of the co-founders) and the rest is history. Eventually the theatre company
disbanded but our work has lived on. Reidy’s play just performed in September
at the RoanokeDiversityCenter in Roanoke, Virginia. Stephen Foster (another co-founder) wrote
a play about Joan Crawford, Bette Davis and Judy Garland fighting to play the
lead in the movie version of Joan of Arc called Legends & Bridge.
That play is being performed this December in Rahway, NJ at the UCPAC Hamilton Stage just twenty minutes from New York City.

After
I became an RN, my work schedule was erratic. I worked every other weekend so
that made performing in theatre impossible so I turned to writing short screenplays
and eventually drawing cartoons about my work. I would add fantasy dream
sequences about conversations I had with rock singer, Madonna so that my
writing was not just about work. Why her? Because I’ve wanted to be like her my
whole life. She is a successful business woman who is also creative and even
she, the most famous woman in the world, is a failed actor. Adding fun and
imagination into my story really opened my writing up. And I could go to the
moon and back and not spend a dime. I didn’t just write about two people on a
stage or film screen but I could go anywhere and do anything and not worry
about if I could fit it onto a stage or having a runaway film budget. The
possibilities were endless. That excited me. My cartoons were easier to share
with the world. The cartoons were on paper so anyone could read it at anytime,
not just on the weekends at the Hudson Avenue theatre in Hollywood.

Another
factor which was a key to my writing at the time when I first became a nurse
was that I started working on the night shift. Most of my friends worked during
the daytime so not only was I working at night but I was isolated from my
friends. Donovan worked nights too but one time (luckily only 2-3 months) he
worked on the nights that I was home and vice versa. More isolation. Yuk.

My
graphic novel started out as two booklets called zines. Each zine had
thirty-six pages. I took my zines to comic book shops and they carried my work
on consignment. That is when the store agrees to sell your work and the two of
you decide on what money percentages each gets. Usually it is a 50/50 split
where the author gets 50% and the store gets 50%. In some cases the
author gets 60% and the store gets 40%. I like that one better. Meltdown comics
on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood sold my comics which sold alright. Sales
were slow. I may have sold ten comic books. But I just got Skylight Books in
Los Feliz (which is right next door to Hollywood) to carry my graphic memoir Welcome To
Nursing HELLo, a Graphic Memoir on consignment. This happened only a few
weeks ago so I will wait and see what happens.

One
store that worked well for me was this store online called Microcosm
Publishing, which also sold zines and books on consignment on the Internet. I
sent them one of my zines not thinking they would want to carry them but they
did! I was excited. Since they started carrying my work around 2010 I have
probably sold 150-200 zines. (I really need to keep close track of my inventory
but I admit I am unorganized.) I won’t be quitting my day job over this but I
am excited that people are reading my work.

Would
I have written my 190 page graphic memoir if I had not become an RN ? Who
knows. But I have my book that people can enjoy. My book is funny and has
non-nursing things in there such as: an awful job interview, the “Mood Swing”,
fighting with my husband in Venice and why I made Madonna cry. So run (don’t walk) to a computer
terminal to order my book on Amazon and if you are a writer keep writing.

JOEL CRAIG is a nurse who works at a busy hospital in Los
Angeles and lives with his husband,
Donovan. They have been married twice with the second time finally being legal.
In addition to writing about nursing, Joel is also an actor, having appeared in
the films, Sideshow and
Sordid Lives.
Currently

he is acting in the web series, What’s My Intention? He's
working on his next graphic novel, Vampire Nurse in Hollywood.